Email breakups, midlife dating led L.A. Affairs Live

Dating in Los Angeles is intense. That was the common thread among 10 stories shared at the first L.A. Affairs Live, a storytelling competition that brought the popular Times romance column to a Hollywood stage on Friday.

Riffing on the theme of “Starting Fresh,” there were not one, but three stories from Los Angeles daters that mentioned breaking up over email. One dater exploring an open relationship found themselves blocked on LinkedIn. Another shared an awkward encounter with their new boyfriend’s parents after moving back in with their own. Another dealt with someone breaking up with them to get back with their ex, only to come crawling back.

Despite the anguish — often told as a punch line — the winner of the competition offered a glimmer of hope to the nearly 90 attendees live-voting throughout the show via an app.

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1. Mary Wisniewski of Franklin Village enters the hidden doorway into the Cinegrill Theater at the Hollywood Roosevelt to see L.A. Affairs Live. 2. Audience member Evangeline Lee of North Hollywood tells her dating story in the L.A. Affairs Confessional Booth. 3. Audience members voted on the winner for L.A. Affairs Live via an app. (Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

“I thought I had to cast a wide net, but you just need your one weirdo to be weird with you,” said winner Laura House before performing at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Cinegrill Theater. “The prospect of dating in your 40s in L.A. is a nightmare.”

House, a TV writer who also teaches stand-up comedy, recounted a first date she went on about a year after being dumped at 46. After that deflating breakup, she had decided to describe herself honestly on a dating app as “wordy, nerdy and kind of sturdy,” and not a lot of people responded, but one did, she said. The date didn’t start well: a waiter spilled shrimp scampi on her. Despite that (spoiler alert), she ends up in “the relationship [she] always wanted and never thought [she] could have.”

“I just have a really sweet love story later in life,” House said of her motivation to audition for the show.

Laura House, who won the first L.A. Affairs Live competition, talks about her going on a first date after deciding to be intensely honest on a dating app profile.

(Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

As a prize, House will be published in a future L.A. Affairs and receive $400 upon publication. She also scored two free passes to the Tropicana pool at the Roosevelt. Other prizes included L.A. Times swag and a free one-year digital subscription to The Times.

Attendees could also check out who else was single in the audience using the Next Fun Thing’s dating app, which facilitates meeting people IRL at the event company’s activities, from speed dating to kickball. The Next Fun Thing produced L.A. Affairs Live along with The Times, while Nicole Blaine of the Crow, a comedy venue in Santa Monica, was the event’s emcee.

When asked for advice on navigating L.A.’s dating scene, several of the storytellers had similar insight: Be honest about what you want, work on finding yourself first and do things around the city.

Scott, left, and Amanda Calvert of Redondo Beach and Laura Bedol of Eagle Rock applaud performer Laura House during L.A. Affairs Live at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

(Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

“Even though it didn’t pan out, I’m so glad I met a guy at pickleball and developed a crush,” said runner-up Michelle Murphy, noting she didn’t want to go out the day she met her crush but pushed herself to anyhow. Her crush — and the increased socialization it brought to her life — taught her she was the magic ingredient to her own joy.

Meanwhile, actor Rati Gupta said she wanted to reveal her tale of woe with a boomerang hookup at L.A. Affairs Live because sharing her saga has been cathartic. Her advice to L.A. daters: be forthcoming and honest about your wants and needs.

Storyteller Antjuan Tobias, who is a jump-first-think-later kind of guy, echoed several performers by describing L.A. dating as challenging.

“L.A. is not, in my mind, a dating city,” said the comedian, who opened up about his experiences dating as a gay man and later meeting his estranged half-brother, who is also gay. “If you find yourself truly, you’ll meet other people.”